Well okay, I know that lately I talk a lot of hyenas, if the giant hyena or brevirostris, if Chasmaporthetes including I talk about the evolution LINK. But the animal from which I will talk today is not exactly a hyena, but almost almost (is in the same sub).Let's talk Dinocrocuta, which literally translated for me, means "Hyena terrible."If the spotted hyena is an animal bite with a power far superior to that of other carnivores of the same size, Dinocrocuta, had a bite even higher. No broken bones, triturated like a herbivore grinds the beans and branches. You just have to take a look at his skull.

The skull was tremendous, huge, note that the strong mandibles look like an elephant but with fangs that look like projectiles. If you have that jaw so wide is to hold the attachments of muscles breakers incredibly powerful and if you have those huge fangs was to withstand the great pressure exerted by the jaws. Possibly one of the largest land mammals with bite force of all time, rather than the Megistotherium, the Androwsarcus and equating to Daeodon or pork terrible.

But this skull to hold the neck and body should be titanic. It is estimated that weighed up to 400 kg (1200 lb). Maybe that will not say anything, but keep in mind that the hyena does not exceed 90kg now, and the lions of Africa, do not exceed 300 kg (900 lb). It is true that during the Miocene, there were other large predators and large herbivores that had fed. And the best thing to have an idea, it's back to the comparisons:

Lion, Dinocrocuta, Cave Lion and Cave Bear.

As shown in the picture, the skull of Dinocrocuta is almost as big as the cave lion and almost the same as the Cave Bear ... but if you look properly on, will see that the bones are more robust. This means that it was perhaps a top predator of its time.

As I said, the Dinocrocuta lived in the late Miocene in Africa, Asia and Europe. And actively hunted large animals, herbivores and carnivores. Animals like the woolly rhinoceros (which bones have been found with tooth marks posilizados of Dinocrocuta cured, so it is given an active role in not only hunting and predator) the Paraceratherium, the Platybelodon, Calicoterios Anisonodon and even the great mammoth.

A few days ago, I was watching the documentary typical of Africa, with its eternal battles between lions and hyenas, when something caught my attention. Early in the documentary, the narrator describing for the umpteenth time the hyenas, he said these were animals that were closer, evolutionarily speaking, a cat than a dog. I found it very funny because hyenas are very similar to dogs, even as they live in herds, ... that's when I started researching, from the beginning (or almost).

We talked of Miacis, the "animal mother", the ancestor of both dogs and cats (both as feliforms Caniformes. Following the storyline, we find gender Prionodon a split where the two genera of felids (where is the Smilodon or saber-toothed tiger and) and barbourofélidos, coming at last to viverrids (the picture above). This name is very important, viverrids developed at the end of the Eocene and they are the ancestors of hyenas and genets (Hyaenidae, Herpestidae, Eupleridae).

I imagine that no need to explain the differences between Caniformia and Feliformia , shaped like a dog or cat shaped, with long snouts and claws fixed or short snouts and retractable claws ... but really, the peculiarity that differentiates these two groups is that the auditory bullae have their feliforms (bony capsules enclosing the middle and inner ear). This is a key to the diagnosis in the classification of species as Feliforme versus Caniforme. In the auditory bullae are feliforms dual chamber composed of two bones joined by a partition. The Caniformes has a single chamber or partially divided auditory bullae, composed of a single bone.

So it is true that the hyena (like all such) come from Miacis, and that is nearer to a big cat than a wolf. Although it is true that is nearer to a genet, a ferret or a tiger. Certainly within the family Hyaenidae we can also find the Hyena giant extinct.

The appearance of the viverrids was like a genet but more slender, had the sharp nose, long neck, tail as long as the rest of the body and dentition hipercarnívora (carnassial teeth, which cut the flesh the way scissors) which is not known is if your hair was streaked, spotted or brown uniform color. It lived in the Eocene and the two species are present linsang striped and spotted linsang.

I present a video of one of a genet, a representative living with an appearance similar to the first Feliformia ... (precursors of the hyenas, cats, tigers or genets and weasels), perhaps this is greater.

Famous is the force that have the jaws of the hyenas that can reach pressures of 350 kg (600lb)and teeth grinding of hard bones and teeth and hooves. Well, now imagine a hyena twice as big, twice as strong and a powerful jaw twice ... this animal there was Pachycrocuta brevirostris.

Pachycrocuta a genus of prehistoric hyenas. The largest specimen, well-documented part of the species of giant hyenas Pachycrocuta brevirostris. With a height of 1 meter (39 in) and weigh up to 120 kg (250 lb).Un similar in size to a small lioness.This size would make it the largest of the hyenas that have ever lived. He lived from the Middle Pliocene and Middle Pleistocene, about 3 million and 500,000 years ago.Found fossils in Eurasia and southern and eastern Africa. In dens, caves used as dens.Scavenger and a predator could be stubborn and tenacious to deer hunting big and small package was probably a hunter of large animals (up to larger deer and occasionally as Megaloceros). The chance of a scavenger is sensed it was a very big animal not built for chasing prey over long distances. In this aspect would have differed from today spotted hyena, which is a more agile animal that, contrary to his image of the documentaries, also kills his own food. Apparently it was ecologically close enough to the smaller (but still important) in relation perrieri Pliocrocuta never found as fossils contemporaries in the same region.